Birthday getaway with my bestie

A few months ago I mentioned to Ash that we should skip out on our husbands and kids and hit up the spa on the island for the night to celebrate our joint birthday! I’ve never met anyone that I shared my birthday with, and now it’s super special to share it with someone who just means the world to me. Thanks for agreeing to join me Mrs T!

It has been a super fun and relaxing day with some shopping, a quick lunch, two amazing spa treatments, dinner (and drinks!!) at the hotel pub and now just sitting around in our PJ’s bullshitting the night away! Now we’ll probably go to bed and hopefully sleep through this terrible wind storm that is blowing all around us tonight! But at least I won’t have to get up with a crying baby!

Here are some pictures from our fabulous day together today! 

Just about to start our treatments at the Oh Spa

Out for dinner at Flying Canoe Pub

Yes ladies and gentleman...I actually had 2 drinks tonight!

Cheers to another year around the sun together! 

Trying out the camera on my new phone so took these two photos too. 

Just because flowers are the best kind to get

Jimmy came home with these pretty pink roses for me yesterday and said they were for no reason at all. I suspect they were early birthday flowers but whatever the reason I’m grateful for them. 

And tonight I picked up my new phone and I’m trying out the new camera and took this great photo of me and Jimmy. 

Instant Pot Successes...and a couple of not so great ones too!

I made the most amazing soup last night in the Instant Pot and I just have to share it so that I can make it again another day! It was an awesome potato, ham, bacon and veggie soup. Here's my little random recipe for the next time:

Ingredients I used:
6-7 small potatoes cut into quarter size chunks (that's all I had...I would have used a few more if I had them)
3 cups of ham - total estimate because I have no idea how much I used but it was quite a bit (I got it from Alysha from her leftovers and it was so yummy!)
3-4 slices of thick sliced bacon (could have used more, because everything is better with more bacon)
Half a small red onion (the only one I had in the house...I actually really liked the flavour it added)
2 big stalks of celery
2 large carrots
2-3 tsps of crushed garlic (I buy the big jar from Costco...love this stuff)
4 cups of chicken broth - made with the Better than Bouillon chicken stock paste (SO GOOD!)
Herb & garlic cream cheese - about 3/4 of a big container of it...could have used less!
Cheddar cheese - maybe a cups worth...could have used more!
Garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Turn IP onto Saute, throw a little butter in there, put the bacon in to cook for a minute
• Put the carrots, celery, onions, ham and garlic into the IP and saute for another minute or so
• Add the potatoes and broth...when I make any broth now I use boiling water to mix with the paste or powder...I've been using the Epicure chicken stock powder until today when I used this new paste stuff. If you use boiling water, and your pot has been used on Saute first, then it is more likely to come to pressure quicker. 
• Turn IP onto manual high pressure for 4 minutes. The pot took less than 10 minutes to come to pressure, then the 4 minutes to cook it. Then I did a quick release which surprisingly took almost 4 minutes which is the longest I've had it take so far in my IP cooking (I guess it's because of how much liquid I had in the pot).
• Opened the IP and it looked like big chunks of potatoes and ham and yummy goodness. Wish I'd taken a picture of this but was rushing to get dinner on the table!
• Next I used an immersion blender to blend up the veggies a little bit. Then I added in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese and some garlic powder and pink salt and blended again for another 15-20 seconds or so until it looked like this.

Apparently this stuff can be bought at Costco! Going to check it out next time I'm there!

Quick saute on the veggies and meat

First step...next time I'd put a bit more bacon :)

This stuff was even better today for leftovers! I had a bagel just toasted with butter and dipped it in there for a yummy and warm rich lunch on a rainy and stormy day.

The first meal I made in my IP was the weekend that Jim was away in Vancouver and I made Mac and cheese for me and the boys. I was proud of myself that I made it, and it did turn out, but the noodles were a little overcooked, and I put in way too much cheese, so the second time I made it I felt like it was way better. The next time I also wouldn't saute the ham either, and would put in way more onion. I would always saute the onions, even if just to get the pot hot as it does help with the pressurization process. 

This recipe is the easiest ever! Throw in the ham, onions, noodles, butter, salt, mustard, with either water or chicken broth. 

Water or broth should just cover the noodles. After this step I put the lid on and turned it on to manual high pressure for 6 minutes. I was nervous because on the box it says these noodles cook in a pot in only 3 minutes (which I have NEVER seen before), so I was worried they would be ruined. The pot took around 6-7 minutes to come to pressure, then the 6 minutes cook time, and then I did a 2 minute natural pressure release (only because I was busy cutting up veggies for supper), then quickly released the rest of the pressure which took another 2 minutes.

My ingredients for after it was done cooking

This is what it looked like when I took the lid off. Had to take a picture because I was so happy and relieved that the kids were actually going to get a dinner!

I stirred in the cheeses and the evaporated milk and it was done....in less than 20 minutes! James loved it...but of course Jordie hated it! He ate it anyways but not without his regular dinner time whine session!

The next day I was feeling confident and brave so decided to throw together a random casserole and hope for the best. I was in the freezer and found that bag of what I thought was hashbrowns...but turned out to be shoestring french fries (which I didn't realize until I had already mixed together all of the other cream type ingredients. I call this one my disaster potatoe casserole!

I mixed everything together, including a good sized chunk of my mom's awesome cheese ball, and then went to throw in the "hashbrowns' and was shocked to see that they were french fries. I rolled with it and figured it would be a learning lesson whether it worked out or not.

Well it didn't work out at all. Within a few minutes of the pot starting working I heard this beeping and went in and saw the dreaded BURN message on the front! I released the little bit of pressure that had built up and opened the lid to find it burned to the bottom of the pot...but the smell was amazing! So I threw it in a pan and threw it in the oven for 20 minutes and presto, James and I had lunch that day. It tasted really good and I learned a ton that day (via FB groups) about always using a clear liquid in the bottom of the pot and to avoid creamy type sauces on the bottom of the pot as they do tend to burn quite easily. I hope to find a great casserole dish that I can use to do the pot in pot method so that I can attempt this kind of casserole again!

Uuuugggghhhh this was a mess! BUT, I did put some water in the pot, threw it back in the IP, put it on Saute and just let the water boil away and I did some slight scraping of the bottom. It came out great!

Once again, James loved it...and of course Jordie wouldn't touch it because it had potatoes in it!

A few days later I made some super easy shredded chicken for caesar salad wraps (and to have a bunch for leftovers too). I just put a bunch of seasoning salt on it, threw in some Epicure chicken stock in the bottom, manual cook for I think 20 minutes, and then a quick release. This was super tender and moist and I loved it.

There was lots for the wraps, then more wraps for James's lunch, and then another 1/2 of a yogurt container's worth for chicken noodle soup a few days later.

I didn't use a sauce or flavour recipe for this pork tenderloin because I'm usually scared of some of the ingredients on those recipes! I just threw some random stuff in there and turned it on for 20 minutes high pressure, then a natural release for 5-6 minutes. When it was done it was super tender and falling apart, but pretty bland. I didn't have the guts to try the pot in pot method so I ended up cooking rice for this dinner on the stove...but I'm getting closer to trying it!

I made some yummy chicken and noodle soup but didn't take any photos. I didn't super love the egg noddles that I used in there because I felt like they were overcooked and soggy (even though they only cooked for around 5 minutes). The flavour of the soup was great using the Epicure chicken stock, carrots, celery, 2 small chicken breasts (cubed and sauteed) before the main cooking began.

Another night I made a yummy honey garlic chicken and noodle casserole that is similar to a recipe that I've made many times in the oven (but took way longer that way!) This night I sauteed up some onions, carrots and chicken in bite size pieces because I hate cutting up food on the kids plates while my dinner gets cold! Then I threw in the noodles with some chicken broth, then put the trivet tray on top of the pasta and in a small casserole dish put a can of cream of chicken soup mixed with some honey, honey mustard, crushed garlic and onion powder). I think I cooked it for 4 minutes on high pressure, but for some reason that night it took closer to 15 minutes to pressurize (of course because we had somewhere we had to go). When it beeped I quick released the pressure, lifted out the dish of sauce and the tray it was sitting on, then dumped the sauce into the noodles and served it up.

So I decided to make Mac and Cheese again because Jim was home and I thought maybe he'd like it. He just isn't a big pasta guy, much prefers his meat and potatoes. This time I had some unopened garlic sausage from the holidays so decided to saute it up with the onions for a minute or two and throw it in there. Jim did not love this but didn't hate it either. James really liked it, but Jordie complained again that he doesn't like macaroni and cheese anymore. I served this with a Caesar salad so I knew he at least had some food to eat that night because he only begrudgingly ate about 8 bites of his plate.

Tonight I used the last of the ham from Alysha, made some scalloped potatoes in the oven, and then attempted rice and veggies in the IP. The rice was actually pretty darn good but definitely a bit of a different texture from cooking it on the stove. I rinsed the rice for about 2 minutes (never knew that was a thing) but it helps with burning and the starchy foam coming up through the steam release (makes a huge mess I've heard!) Then I put a bit of oil in the pot on saute, then put in the rice with some salt and boiling water, then put the trivet on top and put the beans in a steaming basket. Cooked for 12 minutes, then a quick release. Rice was good, veggies were a bit mushy but overall a good experience again! 

Next up is apple crisp on Friday night after supper!

This was one for the memory books

James would sleep in our bed every single night if he could get away with it! Many many nights I go to bed and find this sleep ninja hiding out in there. On this particular night I hadn’t heard anyone get up so I go up the stairs thinking of something completely random and flick on the light in our room to see this scene....

They both snuck out of their beds and into ours!!! Jordie almost never crawls into our bed, or even gets out of his bed at all at night so I was especially surprised to see him! When I asked them tonight about this they started to giggle and James told me that he had crawled in first and then Jordie got up to go pee and saw him there so decided to climb in too. Jim and I joked that we should have just crawled into their bunk beds and seen what they thought of that the next morning! They probably would have loved it!

Photos from our big crazy blended family photo shoot!

This Christmas was the first time that all 5 of us kids have all been together in Powell River since mom's birthday six years ago, and our last family photos were taken 10 years ago on the day after our wedding. It was definitely time for some updated photos seeing as we've added a bunch of family members since then! As soon as Mom found out all 5 of us would be here for at least a day or two together she messaged Jenn right away to book us in. I think Jenn said mom tentatively booked her more than 6 months ago! Ang & Bill and their family got a bunch of photos done before the big family session because Ang won a session with Jenn so figured it was a good time to use it. She's given me permission to share some of those in this post too!

As I usually try to do with these kinds of posts, I'm starting off with my very FAVORITE picture from the whole shoot, and funny enough this shows exactly how blended our family is. For those that don't know, that is me and my brothers Chris and Ben and our mom on the left, then our stepdad (who I call Dad but the boys call George or Big Guy), and then on the right of the picture are his kids Andra and Ryan and their mom Barb (otherwise known in our family as Bumma....even I call her that now!) We haven't always been this happy together family and its taken a lot of time passing, and a lot of putting stuff in the past, for everyone to get where we are today. We celebrate holidays together now, and these photos wouldn't have been the same without all of us in them!

I just simply LOVE this photo so much. If there was one photo I wanted to turn out the best, I think this would be it! All three of the parents in this picture mean the world to all of us and all of them have been around my whole life. There is my mom, the man I consider my dad, and his first wife (who funny enough I grew up calling Auntie Barb...that's a long story for another blog on another day!) :) 

Now onto the rest! Here's our in the trees family shot!

Another great one of the 5 of us with mom and dad

This picture is just so Ryan and his big personality! He grumbled the most the day before the photos, but I think in the end had the most fun out of all of us too! He is such a big old teddy bear!

All 5 kids and our significant others! From left to right: Chris and Teresa, Bill and Andra, Ryan and Samantha, Jimmy and me, and Kiley and Ben. Such a great photo and I'm really glad that mom wanted this on the list!

Another FANTASTIC photo of just the 5 of us. I don't even remember if we got one like this the last time we had photos taken 10 years ago...and if we did I obviously didn't like it enough for it to stick out in my memory. This one will be going on my wall for sure!

Quite possibly one of my favorite photos of me and my brothers ever taken.

The 2 sisters of the group! I love a lot of pictures of me and Ang together (I can think of at least 3 right off my head), but this one is certainly added to that list!

A great photo of Ang & Ryan too

And now the 3 brothers!

hahahahahaha...there are just no words to do this picture justice!

Love this one of us with dad too

A couple more great shots of dad with his kids

And now some of us with our mom. Originally these sets of shots weren't on the list to be taken, but when we were there and deciding which shots we wanted we realized these ones would be nice to have too. It's great to all be one big family, but it's also nice sometimes for a mama (or a dad for that matter) to have a nice picture with just their own kids too.

Another favorite for me for sure!

Aaaawwww....me and my mama.

Yeah I guess you could say that we look a little bit alike :)

Now moving on to a couple of family shots....do the kids look cold and done? Because they were! It may have been bright and sunny, but it was ridiculously cold down there!

Had to put both of ours because K looks adorable in the first one, but the second one is cuter of the boys. I figured it's my blog and I could pull it off :)

Such a great shot of the Reimer family. I can't believe how big and grown up these kids are getting. It always amazes me because Chris and Teresa are just that much ahead of us in raising kids that their youngest is just a bit older than our oldest. They will be empty nesters LONG before Jim and I are!

Now for some amazing couple shots...starting with the heads of the family...and of course our adorable fur brother Diesel too!

Such a great shot of these 2!

Aaaawww Diesel, what a good boy he is! This will be a photo they will treasure forever for sure!

Then going from oldest to youngest kids! 

Ryan & Sam

Ang & Bill

Chris & Teresa

Ben & Kiley...I think this is the most adorable couple photo of all of us. These two just recently started dating a few months ago, but she is seriously the best thing that we all think has ever happened to Ben. They are so incredibly happy together and we all see great things for them in their future together!

Now that's the face of a woman in love (and new love at that!) :)

Me and Jimmy

And last but not least, Tyanna and Cody!

So before we moved up to the trees we did take some shots down by the water...but the light was so bright that we quickly moved up to a less intense sun spot. For how bright it was I think Jenn did a fantastic job and I know the editing on these photos was very time consuming with the harsh glare that day. We couldn't have picked a worse time of day for these photos, but considering we had no idea it would be like this on Dec 23 we just went with the time that would work best for everyone and hoped for the best. We kept saying it could have been absolutely pouring rain so we took the cold and bright sun and went with it!

Adorable grandkids photo! Seriously how cute is Kennedy with her little head bow and little grey booties?! 

These two groups shots were my idea and I'm so glad we went for them...and you'll see why in a second!

Aren't the girls of our family some gorgeous ladies?! 

And now for the boys! Aren't they just handsome?!

And of course Ryan suggested an all guy wrestling match and these photos turned out awesome! I love Jordie's little smile in this one, but I feel bad for poor Diesel cause I'm not sure what's happening to him in this picture! hahahahaha

Next up are some of the shots from the Garrett's photo session before the big family one. I think Gunther just makes these photos...he is such a handsome looking dog (who is really more human than a lot of humans I know!)

Such a great shot of Barb and her babies!

I love this photo of Barb with Tyanna and Andra! I think it's one of the best of the bunch so I'm finishing off this post with it!

So there you have it...our big beautiful blended family photo shoot!